DIVING: US Meet Key To World Championship Success

THE national divers will have only one chance to fine-tune their dives in an outdoor event ahead of the World Championships in Barcelona in July.

The Fort Lauderdale Grand Prix on May 9-12 in the United States will be a crucial competition as the world meet is also held outdoor.

National coach Yang Zhuliang described the event as the most important in the diving calendar apart from the world meet.

"The world's top divers are expected to compete for honours in the US as they, too, will use it to prepare for the world meet. It will be like an Olympic event," said Zhuliang yesterday.

The divers were supposed to compete in the Canada Grand Prix in the preceding week but have cancelled their plans due to visa issues.

"We have to go to Singapore to apply for the visas and this is troublesome. Furthermore, my divers will have to skip training.

"However, we cannot afford to skip the US meet. It is an outdoor event and the conditions will be similar to the world meet," said Zhuliang.

The World Championships on July 19-Aug 4 will be held at the Piscina Municipal de Montjuic.

Zhuliang said the venue for the world meet was located on a hilly terrain and the strong wind conditions would affect inexperienced divers.

"It will be a problem for platform divers. In indoor events, divers only worry about their dives, not the winds.

"We are planning to go to China after the US Grand Prix for training and we are looking at an outdoor venue.

"I have not finalised the squad for the US event but several newcomers will likely be included like Nor Dhabitah Sabri, Traisy Vivien Tukiet and Chew Yiwei."

Meanwhile, Zhuliang has named his strongest squad for the third leg of the World Series in Edinburgh on April 19-21.

Olympic bronze medallist Pandelela Rinong along with Leong Mun Yee, Wendy Ng, Cheong Jun Hoong, Yiwei and Ooi Tze Liang make up the squad. By Ajitpal Singh

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